Tax reform plan: Wipe slate clean

Senate Finance Committee leaders are poised to soon deliver a message to the other 98 members in the chamber: Get prepared to defend your most cherished tax breaks.

Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the panel’s top Republican, are preparing to release a tax reform framework on Thursday that essentially starts from a clean slate, according to more than a half-dozen lobbyists familiar with the discussion. That means eliminating virtually all existing deductions, credits and expenditures to dramatically lower corporate and individual tax rates.

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Several sources said that Baucus and Hatch will send a “dear colleague” letter to other senators letting them know that they will have time through the end of July to offer feedback on which tax breaks should be retained.

Such a strategy is sure to encounter opposition from members of both parties who would rather cut tax breaks they don’t like rather than defend provisions they support.